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| Babulal Nagar, former Food minister of Rajasthan (Pic: NDTV) |
NEW DELHI (AA) –India’s federal
investigating agency on Friday arrested former top official Babulal Nagar for
allegedly raping and beating a 35-year-old woman last month at his official
residence in the historic city of Jaipur.
Earlier in the day, the CBI grilled
Nagar -- who once served as minister of state for dairy and rural
industries (food) in the western Rajasthan State -- at a government rest
house before formally arresting him.
Talking to reporters before entering
the rest house, Nagar said he had given a statement to the CBI in writing in
which he had denied the charges leveled against him.
Rajasthan police summoned Nagar for
allegedly raping and beating the victim on September 11 after calling her to
his official residence in state capital Jaipur, luring her with promises of
employment.
The victim filed a lawsuit five days
later, forcing the official to tender his resignation after charges were
officially brought against him.
"This is my reply to those who
have apprehended that as a minister I can influence [the ongoing] investigation,"
he said.
"I am being framed in a
political conspiracy," he asserted. "Through media reports I was told
that a woman has alleged that on September 11 she was called by me at my
official residence."
He added: "Let me tell you that
my house was full of people on that day on which the woman alleged that she was
raped."
Nagar also stressed that the ruling
Congress Party should not be implicated in the case.
The Congress Party, for its part,
has already suspended Nagar's membership until his name is cleared of the
allegations.
The case is the second such
embarrassment in as many years for the ruling party, which is currently
preparing to contest state polls in November.
In 2011, Congress State Cabinet
Minister Mahipal Maderna and Congress legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi were
both accused of the rape and murder of a government nurse.
The case is still being heard in
court, while the two accused men remain in police custody.
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